By LIZ SIDOTI

Democrats won 15 Republican-held districts Tuesday in nearly every region of the country, enough to wrest control of the House if all incumbents hold their seats.

As voters demonstrated their disenchantment with a war, a president and scandals on Capitol Hill, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) predicted, "We are on the brink of a great Democratic victory." The California Democrat is in line to become the first female House speaker if her party gains 15 seats to win control of the House and end the GOP's 12-year reign.

In the conservative Ohio River Valley, Democrats ousted John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel in Indiana, and Anne Northup in Kentucky. In the Northeast, Nancy Johnson in Connecticut and Charles Bass in New Hampshire lost.

To the West, a Democrat won an Arizona seat left open by Jim Kolbe's retirement. In the South, Charles Taylor lost to a former NFL quarterback in North Carolina and Clay Shaw failed to win re-election in Florida.

Ethics woes were clearly taking their toll on the GOP: Republicans surrendered the Ohio seat once held by Bob Ney, who resigned after pleading guilty in a lobbying scandal, while Democrats defeated Curt Weldon in Pennsylvania in the fallout from a federal corruption investigation.